I found help by writing directly to Chester County probate court and asking for a copy of the index of the estate records for the surname that I was researching. That way they would not be overwhelmed by my request. Once I had names and page numbers from the index, I was able to specify which estate record I wanted a copy of. Estate records include any wills if they exist and also the names of people who bought at the estate sale. Hope this may help, Nancy -----Original Message----- From: scchest2-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:scchest2-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of scchest2-request@rootsweb.com Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:01 AM To: scchest2@rootsweb.com Subject: SCCHEST2 Digest, Vol 4, Issue 101 Today's Topics: 1. Re: Is there help in finding Chester County records? (gc-gateway@rootsweb.com) 2. Re: Is there help in finding Chester County records? (gc-gateway@rootsweb.com) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:58:38 -0000 From: "gc-gateway@rootsweb.com" <gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [SCCHEST2] Is there help in finding Chester County records? To: <SCCHEST2-L@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <1247583520.337216@rootsweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: MildredFournier Surnames: Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.southcarolina.count ies.chester/4089.1.1.1.2.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Just point your browser to: http://scdah.sc.gov/ In the yellow section in red letters you will see Reseach & Genealogy. Click that and you can go from there. They have quite a lot available besides wills. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:27:41 -0000 From: "gc-gateway@rootsweb.com" <gc-gateway@rootsweb.com> Subject: Re: [SCCHEST2] Is there help in finding Chester County records? To: <SCCHEST2-L@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <1247578062.11155@rootsweb.com> Content-Type: text/plain; This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: ub4meib4u Surnames: McDonald, Donald Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.southcarolina.count ies.chester/4089.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Go to this website - http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/onlinearchives/search.aspx and type in the last name of the person you are looking for. A drop down list of names will appear and you can select from that, then click on the "Search" box at the bottom. Alternately, under "Document Type", you can select either "Will" or "Will (Typescript)" If you select "All", you will get everything they have on your search term. I got 49 results from 1742 to 1869 when I searched for the term "McDonald, Daniel" and "All" Document Types. Whatever is underlined in the search results is a document you can view. All results have a list of names indexed in the document. If it has "online images available" underlined, then you can view the document. The SC Archives is in the process of putting all their records online so if you keep checking back, all documents will eventually be available for viewing. This is a free service so no membership is required. Note - Some families dropped the "Mc" from their names around this time, so I'd also search for "Donald, Daniel", etc. For example, I recently saw "McDaniel" and "Daniel" referenced in the same record. Best wishes in your search. Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board. ------------------------------ To contact the SCCHEST2 list administrator, send an email to SCCHEST2-admin@rootsweb.com. To post a message to the SCCHEST2 mailing list, send an email to SCCHEST2@rootsweb.com. __________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SCCHEST2-request@rootsweb.com with the word "unsubscribe" without the quotes in the subject and the body of the email with no additional text. End of SCCHEST2 Digest, Vol 4, Issue 101 ****************************************